Notebook shipments are expected to see a gradual pick-up starting in the third quarter of 2024, with the highly anticipated replacement demand driven by the arrival of AI PCs, according to industry sources.
Quanta released its first quarter financial report during its online earnings call on May 15, noting quarterly growth in gross margin, operating margin, and net income after tax, as well as three key factors in the company's upcoming strategy. AI servers will generate more than half of server-related revenue, AI notebooks, and PCs are still in their early stages, and opportunities still lie in autonomous driving.
As AI continues to be deployed in an ever-increasing range of industries, Cloud Service Providers (CSP) have accordingly increased their investments in AI-related hardware, with Nvidia's latest GB200-equipped servers the clear favorite due to its vast improvements over currently available products in terms of inference performance, training performance, and energy efficiency.
Apple recently announced its latest iPad products. In particular, the iPad Pro upgraded to OLED panels and featured the M4 chip, making it arguably the best iPad in recent years. As media reviews for the iPad Pro started to be published, it's easy to notice a consensus: the hardware is truly impressive, but the software leaves a lot to be desired.
Samsung Electronics has reclaimed the top position in the global smartphone market in the first quarter of 2024, driven by the strong performance of its Galaxy S24 series. However, despite its global success, the South Korean tech giant continues to struggle in the Chinese market.
Apple's supply chain experienced inventory adjustments in the market, with the launch of new products in 2024 driving the recovery of supply chain operations.
Asus has reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2024, as its PC and motherboard businesses see sustained shipments, and AI servers begin contributing significantly to revenue.
Since the commercial operation launch of China's 5G communication system in October 2019, the number of 5G mobile users in China has exceeded 800 million. The monthly shipment proportion of 5G smartphones has also increased to over 80%, becoming the mainstream specification in the market.
Market research firm DSCC recently stated that for Apple's OLED iPad launched in 2024, LG Display (LGD) is expected to account for over 65% of the panel shipments, ahead of Samsung Display (SDC). Observers in the South Korean industry have raised concerns about Apple issuing rather harsh requirements, suspecting that Apple may be attempting to shift the "responsibility" of weak sales and shipments onto the South Korean panel manufacturers
Micron Technology has announced the availability of the Crucial series LPCAMM2, an innovative form factor for next-generation notebook memory that incorporates LPDDR5X mobile memory to enhance the performance of notebooks intended for professionals and creators.
Apple has unveiled its new iPad products. Besides OLED panels, the M4 chip featured in the new iPad Pro series was the biggest surprise reveal. In particular, Apple dedicated much of its presentation to introducing the Neural Engine, claiming it to be the best Neural Processing Unit (NPU) among all current AI PC chips.
Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei has dismissed rumors that it is increasing efforts in PC chip R&D, to launch the Kirin X series PC processor line in 2024.
Apple's latest release of the brand-new iPad series brings a fresh outlook to the long-stagnant tablet market and is expected to serve as a revenue booster for the main assembler, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn), in the months ahead. However, according to supply chain sources, Foxconn's overall revenue contribution from the new iPad series could still be affected by off-season effects in the second quarter of the year.
To take advantage of the rebound in the global monitor market in 2024, companies such as Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are targeting high-performance, gaming, and AI demands by launching new monitor products to accelerate their market penetration.
After experiencing a decline over the past two years, the global tablet market finally showed growth in the first quarter of 2024. Among the major brands, Apple saw the biggest decline, while Huawei seemed to benefit from the popularity of its smartphones, and Xiaomi showed nearly double the growth.
Apple's launch of a new-generation iPad Pro with OLED screens is expected to accelerate the adoption of the display technology among IT products, but sources from the LCD camp believe there are still hurdles to overcome for OLED.
Taiwan-based system device assemblers are seeking profit growth by expanding output and component integration, as the tablet market sees limited momentum and demand for Apple's latest iPad series remains undetermined.
Apple has revealed the M4, the latest silicon chip designed by Apple that will first power the new iPad Pro series. Apple was less tight-lipped about AI than before during its recent event, stating several times that the M4 can provide exceptional performance in AI computing with only a quarter of the power consumption.
TSMC has already seen utilization rates for its 3nm family climb to more than 95%, and with strong demand from customers, including Apple, for its N3E process, capacity supply at the 3nm node will fall short, according to industry sources.
Chinese iPhone shipments jumped about 12% in March after Apple Inc. and its retailers slashed prices, official data showed, suggesting efforts to arrest an accelerating decline in sales are yielding early results.
